Francis Jeune, 1st Baron St Helier

The Right Honourable The Lord St Helier GCB PC QC
Lord St Helier.
President of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division
In office June 1892 – January 1905
Monarch	Queen Victoria Edward VII
Preceded by	Sir Charles Parker Butt
Succeeded by	Sir Gorell Barnes
Judge Advocate General
In office 31 December 1892 – 1905
Monarch	Queen Victoria
Prime Minister	William Ewart Gladstone The Earl of Rosebery
Preceded by	William Thackeray Marriott
Succeeded by	-
Personal details
Born	17 March 1843
Died	9 April 1905 (aged 62)
Nationality	British
Spouse(s)	Susan Stuart-Mackenzie (d. 1931)
Alma mater	Balliol College, Oxford

Francis Henry Jeune, 1st Baron St Helier GCB PC QC (17 March 1843 – 9 April 1905), known as Sir Francis Jeune (1891–1905), was a British judge.^[1] He was President of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division of the High Court of Justice (1892–1905) and Judge Advocate General (1892–1905).

Background and education

Jeune was the son of The Right Reverend Francis Jeune, Bishop of Peterborough, and Margaret, daughter of Henry Symons. Educated at Harrow and Balliol College, Oxford, he was President of the Oxford Union in 1864. In 1868, he was called to the Bar, Inner Temple.^[2]

Judicial career

In 1888, Jeune became a Queen's Counsel.^[3] In 1891, he was appointed as a Judge in the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division of the High Court and knighted.^[4][5] In June 1892, he became President of the Court in succession to Sir Charles Parker Butt^[6] and sworn of the Privy Council.^[7] In December of that year, he was also appointed Judge Advocate General by Liberal Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone.^[8] He continued as President of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division until January 1905 when, beset by ill health, he resigned. In 1897, he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB)^[9] and, in 1902, a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB).^[10] In February 1905, he was granted an annuity of £3,500^[11] and raised to the peerage as Baron St Helier of St Helier in the Island of Jersey and of Arlington Manor in the County of Berkshire.^[12]

Family

On 17 August 1881, Lord St Helier married Susan Mary Elizabeth Stanley, the recently widowed daughter of Keith William Stewart-Mackenzie and Hannah Charlotte Hope-Vere. In 1882, their only child, a son, Francis Jeune, was born; on 19 August 1904, he died of enteric fever in Poona, India. Lord St Helier died the next year, on 9 April 1905, aged 62. As he had no surviving male issue, the barony died with him. Lady St Helier died in January 1931.^[2]

References

1. Herbert Stephen, Jeune, Francis Henry, Baron St Helier (1843–1905), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, September 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34188
2. thepeerage.com Francis Henry Jeune, 1st and last Baron St. Helier
3. The London Gazette: no. 25789. p. 1154. 21 February 1888.
4. The London Gazette: no. 26130. p. 561. 30 January 1891.
5. The London Gazette: no. 26140. p. 1201. 3 March 1891.
6. The London Gazette: no. 26294. p. 3287. 3 June 1892.
7. The London Gazette: no. 26303. p. 3786. 1 July 1892.
8. The London Gazette: no. 26360. p. 3. 3 January 1893.
9. The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 26867. p. 8569. 25 June 1897.
10. The London Gazette: no. 27453. p. 4441. 11 July 1902.
11. The London Gazette: no. 27761. p. 841. 3 February 1905.
12. The London Gazette: no. 27768. p. 1394. 24 February 1905.

Sources

• The Times, Monday, 22 August 1904; p. 7
• The Times, Monday, 10 April 1905; p. 6
• The Times, Monday, 26 January 1931; p. 12
• The Times, Friday, 8 October 1965; p. 1
• The Times, Saturday, 4 June 1966; p. 2
• "Alexander Mackenzie, History Of The Mackenzies"
• Profile at worldroots.com

External links